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President loses `soft coup' libel lawsuit

"Chen was unable to offer sufficient evidence and prove that Lien, Soong or the pan-blue parties had attempted to launch such a coup against the Democratic Progressive Party government."

Taipei District Court ruling

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lost the libel suit brought against him by opposition leaders for comments he made suggesting they had tried to engineer a "soft coup" during the aftermath of last year's presidential election.

A press statement released by the Presidential Office last night expressed the president's regret over the decision, but said that he will appeal the ruling and present more evidence.

Taipei District Court ruled yesterday that Chen must pay former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) NT$1 each in compensation for his remarks concerning the alleged coup by the pan-blue parties.

"Chen was unable to offer sufficient evidence and prove that Lien, Soong or the pan-blue parties had attempted to launch such a coup against the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government," the court ruling said.

"The coup remarks made by Chen were a very serious accusation against the nation's top opposition politicians which questioned their loyalty to the country. Therefore the court has decided that Chen is guilty of libeling both Lien and Soong," the ruling added.

In addition to the NT$2 in compensation, the ruling said that Chen must publish half-page apologies in the nation's major Chinese-language newspapers.

However, the judges rejected Lien and Soong's request that the president publish apologies in major international newspapers.

Chen told the public last November that the KMT and PFP had tried to engineer a coup in response to what they claim was unfairness involved in the result of the presidential election last March.

Chen said shortly after the election that the pan-blue camp had tried to persuade senior army generals and officers to launch a "soft coup" to bring about a change of government.

Chen, as head of state, is protected from any criminal suits but can still be held liable for damages.

The ruling yesterday marked the second time in recent weeks that an incumbent or former president has lost a slander suit.

Last month former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was ordered to pay Soong NT$10 million (US$298,500) in compensation by the Taipei District Court for saying that Soong had abandoned pan-blue supporters during an April 10 demonstration and returned home to play mahjong.

Lee Fu-dian (李復甸), the lawyer representing Lien and Soong, said in a statement that the ruling highlighted the fact that both the DPP party and the president had failed to "distinguish between freedom of speech and the right to resistance."

Lee also called Soong straight after the ruling was issued, and said Soong was "thankful for the decision."

"The ruling upholds the public's expectations of justice ? I respect the fair and just performance of the justice system," Lee reported Soong as saying.

KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) yesterday applauded the justice authorities for making a fair and just decision.

"I hope this ruling will be a lesson to Chen Shui-bian and other politicians, force them to pay more attention to their deeds, set a good example for society and in future exercise some self-restraint," she said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Chiu Yu-tzu
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